Borsa Italiana prepares for weekend switch to MillenniumIT

21 June 2012 | 4558 views | 0

Borsa Italiana is to shut down trading on the TradEelect platform for the final time after markets close Friday, in preparation for a big bang migration to the London Stock Exchange's MillenniumIT trading system.

Initially slated for introduction on 18 June, Borsa Italiana moved the deadline forward in early June to allow time for further testing and consultation with stakeholders.

The London Stock Exchange migrated its UK cash markets to the Linux-based MillenniumIT trading platform in February last year, some five months behind schedule following teething troubles at the already-migrated Turquoise exchange.

In prepping for the switch, Borsa Italiana has prepared a rollback plan that can be set in motion up to three days after the initial changeover in the event of unrecoverable technical problems or outages on MillenniumIT.

"It has the objective to restore full trading functionality on the current TradElect trading platform and on the current software version of MDF/DDM Plus," says the Exchange in a communication to member firms. "Market participants' trading systems and related data must be rolled back accordingly in such event."

The LSE acquired Sri Lanka's MillenniumIT for around £18 million in 2009 as it sought to catch up with nimble, technologically superior competitors such as Chi-X and Bats Europe. It boasts trading speeds of less than a millisecond compared to the 2.7 milliseconds produced by TradElect.

The LSE has since sold the platform to exchanges in Delhi, Oslo and Johannesburg.